Ugandaâ€™s homosexual debate has gone viral but only one voice is being heard. Does it speak for you?

Ugandans are well familiar with Western popular culture. Television shows like Gossip Girl and Desperate Housewives find their way onto television screens in Ugandan homes; Christopher Nolanâ€™s Inception is in Ugandan theatres, and CNN and the BBC World Service are never more than a channel click away.

But what does the West know of Ugandan popular culture? Stories of riots, elections and international conferences are ubiquitous, but they rarely provide any insight into Ugandan culture itself â€“ that is, into the sort of things that the people of Uganda find funny, surprising, outrageous, or important.Â

Recently, however, Westerners have been learning more than usual about Ugandan culture. The reason for this is a YouTube video named â€œEAT DA POO POO,â€ which has been spreading virally over the internet. The video documents a series of anti-gay tirades by Ugandan Pastor, Dr. Martin Ssempa. Armed with explicit visual aids, Ssempa argues that what homosexuals do in the privacy of their bedrooms is simply far too disgusting to be protected by the law. Homosexual men, he claims, lick each otherâ€™s anuses like, â€œice cream and even poo poo comes out...This one smears the poo poo all over the other oneâ€™s face.â€Â Â

To date, the video has almost three million hits on YouTube, has spawned an auto-tune remix with some four-hundred-thousand hits, and is listed on Ebaumâ€™s World, a popular archive of internet curiosities.

Westerners watch this video because they find Ssempaâ€™s antics comical, but what few of them realize is how un-comical his views are to many native Ugandans. Homosexuality is outlawed in as many as thirty-eight African countries, including Uganda. In Mauritania, Nigeria, and neighbouring Sudan, it is currently punishable by death. And Ugandan MP David Bahatiâ€™s recent effort to push through a comprehensive â€œAnti Homosexuality Billâ€ â€“ which would include capital punishment for â€œaggravatedâ€ offences â€“ has received considerable popular support.

With Bahatiâ€™s bill still under consideration in parliament, Uganda is one of the few African countries to currently be on the verge of tightening its regulation against homosexuals. Already under Ugandaâ€™s Penal Code Act of 1950, those who engage in the â€œunnatural offenceâ€ of gay sex may be imprisoned for life, and those who merely attempt to do so can be imprisoned for up to seven years. But this new piece of legislation expands on the current law to include lengthy prison sentences for anyone who as much as â€œpromotes,â€ funds, disseminates, or provides a venue for homosexual activities, as well as anyone who fails to publicly disclose their knowledge of a homosexual offense.

With six African countries having decriminalized homosexuality as recently as 2008, nd with South Africa having become the fifth country in the world to recognize same-sex marriage in 2006, why is Uganda moving in the opposite direction?

The short answer is that in contrast to other African nations, powerful people in Uganda have taken collective initiative on anti-gay legislation. In an interview with The Independent, MP David Bahati cited his membership in a Ugandan chapter of â€œThe Fellowshipâ€ or â€œThe Familyâ€, a U.S.-based Christian political organization, as the key impetus behind the new bill. Every Thursday the members of the local division of The Fellowship, which include a close circle of Ugandan MPs and religious leaders (led by Ssempa), meet to discuss â€œhow to use godly principles to influence public policy.â€ About a year and a half ago, Bahati reveals, it was decided in one such meeting that the legal framework as it stands was incapable of addressing the urgency of the problem of homosexuality in Uganda. Bahati was chosen and happily volunteered to be at the forefront of developing new legislation.

For Bahati, the 2009 â€œAnti Homosexuality Billâ€ is both a personal and political imperative. It is personal because he is convinced that homosexuality is a sin and that â€œsin must be fought:â€ â€œThough I love homosexuals, I hate the sin in them. I believe that they can be rehabilitated, that they can be counselled and come back to normality.â€ On the political front, he says, the bill is critical to stop homosexuality from taking over the world. â€œAs a country, Uganda should be able to really provide leadership at this time when the world needs leadership.â€

However, the genesis of this new bill cannot be explained solely by the raw initiative of Bahati and The Fellowship. In order to have any chance of passing into law, the bill needs considerable support from parliamentarians, other members of government, and ideally from the public. According to Bahati, it has all of these. Despite strong international pressure to shelve the bill, including threats by some Western governments to cut off aid to Uganda should it finally pass, Bahati believes that the â€œgovernment supports what Iâ€™m doing.â€ The cause of legislative hesitation over the bill so far, he believes, is strictly political; key government officials remain caught between whether to â€œstand for what is right, or to compromise and get donor money.â€ Moreover, for its part, 95% of the population of Uganda, according to Bahati, believes that â€œhomosexuality is a sin and shouldnâ€™t be supported.â€ A public petition in support of the bill has already gathered four million signatures. Even foreign governments like Canada, which have been very active in expressing criticism of the bill, secretly support it, claims Bahati: â€œDeep in their hearts, [Canadians] donâ€™t support homosexuality.â€

In Kampala, opinions about homosexuality vary: Aida, who owns an inconspicuous hair salon in central Kampala, supports the new bill and claims that homosexuality, â€œis not part of African culture...Itâ€™s a disease and you kill a disease.â€ At Masala Chat House restaurant, Manager Joseph Onen Bakiti says that he would not fire an employee if he or she was discovered to be a homosexual, but he still believes that all homosexuals should be jailed. If a police officer were found out to be a homosexual, by contrast, not only would they be immediately fired and prosecuted for the crime, they would be subject to additional punitive action under the Police Forceâ€™s disciplinary code, explains Uganda Police Forceâ€™s Deputy Public Relations Officer Ssekate Vicent.

Others in Uganda believe that the new proposed legislation is excessively cruel despite homosexualityâ€™s unseemliness. Solomon Webalealaari, a civil rights lawyer based in Kampala, does not believe that homosexuality should be criminalized, but notes that many Ugandans who agree with him are afraid to publicly voice their opinion, lest they be stigmatized or branded as un-African, un-Christian, and pro-Gay.

The fact that tolerant views of this sort have been marginalized in Ugandan public culture is a testament to the vehemence and popularity of Ssempaâ€™s campaign. Ssempa and his associates present homophobia in general, and support for anti-gay legislation in particular, as standards of membership in Ugandaâ€™s Afro-Christian majority. 84 percent of Ugandans are Christian and according to gay rights activist, Major Rubaramira Ruranga, it is precisely by branding support for the recent bill as an essential aspect of what it means to be a committed Christian in Uganda that the anti-gay lobby has achieved such success.

Â Major Ruranga argues that, in contrast to Western society, Ugandan society places intense value on communal attachment, even when this comes at the expense of individual expression. As a result, he says, â€œreligion has become more of a culture than a faith.â€ Instead of promoting sincere belief, the religious establishment promotes outward conformity to standards adhered to by the larger group. In the case of Ugandaâ€™s Christian community, Ruranga suggests, the hatred of gays has become one of these unquestioned group standards.

But it was not always so. According to Ruranga, the anti-gay movement in Uganda only gained traction in the 1990s in large part as a reaction to a perceivable rise in gay pride, activism, and the unprecedented occurrence of public disclosures of homosexuality in the Ugandan media. The religious establishment decided this was dangerous and instigated a backlash. It is not clear how much of a role the U.S. based Fellowship had in fomenting that backlash, but what is certain is that it is now fully supportive of it. According to Bahati, one American Pentecostal friend recently lamented to him that â€œI wish we [in the U.S.] had done what you are doing thirty years ago; we would be much better off.â€

What quickly becomes clear from speaking to ordinary Ugandans is that, in fact, they are not all convinced that they would be better off if Bahatiâ€™s proposed bill were signed into law. Their reasons are wide ranging, but in some instances, like that of Rafaella, a law student at Makerere University, one of them is the recognition that, â€œall crimes are sins, but not all sins are crimes.â€ Yet the constant sense of shame with which Ugandaâ€™s gay community is currently made to live is already punishment in its own right.

Others have mentioned that the current law is too far-reaching. For instance, because the bill allocates prison sentences to anyone who fails to report a known homosexual offence, even a parent who discovers that their own son or daughter is gay, but for obvious reasons fails to publicly report this, could be thrown in jail for up to three years.

One rarely hears such reservations and concerns voiced in the mass media. If the country and the world is ever going to see that Ssempa does not represent all Ugandans, and that â€œEAT DA POO POOâ€ provides only the slimmest window into Ugandan culture, this will have to change and Ugandaâ€™s more tolerant and level-headed voices will have to bravely speak up.Â

Question; just how did the good pastor come about all this information?

...written by Hajat Salma,
August 27, 2010

@Jerry: try to inform yourself a bit more. There is a huge difference between pedophiles (homosexual or heterosexual people sexually attracted to children) and homosexuals (people being attracted to members of their own sex). There are more heterosexual pedophiles than homosexual pedophiles. Just open any newspaper and count the male to female defilements and the male to male defilements.... Most homosexuals prefer to make love with their fellow consented adults. Thanks for the Independent to publish a professional, objective, not emotionally loaded article on this topic!

homosexuality is just beyond Africa and it should remain dat way, in any way,wat kind of manners r were teaching our kids if we cant even teach them d basics of life like man was meant 4 woman en d other way round nt man 4 man, n woman 4 woman..... dis is crazy i personally hate d fact dat some pple even think of pushing thru wth such an bsurd idea 2 dis grt naton dat we love so much, arent we bn traumatised enough ind past??? is dis whr u wd want us 2 head??? Plz M7 do something cos u head dis nation, do something en dont let them bring their immorality 2 our home sweet home..

Realitywritten by Trip,
August 28, 2010

Human sexuality is, by God's brilliant design, determined by 3 independently associating genes, for 36 possible ranges. Add that each gene can be either "on" or "off" and you actually have 6 variables -- causing about 4500 possibilities in the range from totally gay to totally straight. That is just a fact of science. In EVERY culture, human biology is human biology. As it happens, SKIN COLOR, also by God's brilliant design, is determined in the exact same manner. 3 independently associating genes, up to about 4500 shades. Do you think, given these facts, that it just might be possible that God used this mechanism to test prior generations on interpreting His word to either love or hate? Please remember that very recently in history, the Bible was used to justify slavery.

...written by Trip,
August 28, 2010

Do you think, just maybe, now that it's universally understood that slavery is wrong He isn't going to stop testing us, so He is using this very same mechanism He used before to test us NOW? When Jesus returns, He will remember who chose to love and who chose to hate. THIS IS YOUR TEST.

...written by Richard,
August 28, 2010

Many Ugandans I know are very embarrassed by the violent malice of Bahati and the disgusting antics of Ssempa. They assure me that 'most Ugandans are not like them', and I'm sure that's true. The real danger is that many people might follow these screaming lunatics because they do not fully understand what they (Bahati, Ssempa and their extremist allies) stand for.

homosexuality is as African as it is European, American or Asian... written by Apuuli,
August 31, 2010

I always have to just laugh at those who think that homosexuality has been brought to Africa by whites. Homosexuality has been in Africa as long as there has been life. In fact, quite the opposite is true. Whites brought hate to Africa. The simple fact that there was no law against homosexuality until 1950 - while Uganda was still under British control - meaning the law was implemented by Brits - tells us that it was the whites who brought hate to Uganda. And now, we see that again, it is Americans supporting the hate against homosexuals, using Ssempa and Bahati as their pawns. It is sad that the Ugandan people have been so blind to this reality. Uganda is just a stage for the global movement of hate against a minority group of people.

My stand on the gay billwritten by newgay ugandan,
August 31, 2010

In High School i had known of female gays but among the males it was away of getting back at the handsome boys or boys who caught the eyes of the females.In Uganda gay culture was first noticed in 1877 Mwanga's royal courts.It took the trend in single high schools,Traditional medians were too involved in it as a way of performin rituals.It later took the trend in high schools.I think my fellow gays in the Uganda sh'd remain discreet there time will come to openly embrace it.It is b'se i am African that is y i am still a closet(secret) gay and the only people i associate with i meet at the gay clubs and community websites such as craiglist,back page.com. And Ugandans sh'd respect everybody's sexuality too.

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